1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to football kicking tees of the type which are used for support of a ball for kickoffs and/or field goals and practice thereof and have particular utility for soccer style kicking without sacrifice in distance accuracy while providing increased accuracy and avoiding the foot injury problems that have plagued soccer style kickers during field goal practice.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Kickoff tees now available at all levels of competition from prep school through the professional organizations have all been fabricated for point of the toe impact of the kicker's foot with the football as the foot is swung through a straight ahead arc in the intended direction of the kick. A particularly exemplary tee in this respect is illustrated in Box, U.S. Pat. No. D195,088 of Apr. 23, 1963 and still represents the present state of the commercial art. In the Box tee, the kicker's toe moves between the two rearmost supports of the tee with little, if any, engagement of the foot with the tee until after the kicker has impacted the ball and sent it along its flight trajectory.
A soccer style kicker approaches the ball at an angle from the rear and kicks it with the upper instep of his foot between the toe and ankle. Soccer style kicking has grown in popularity because of the control the kicker has of the ball and the greater height and distance which can be achieved. By virtue of the fact that body torque enters into the leg swing, greater force can be transmitted to the ball than is the case with straight ahead, point of the toe kicking. The difference can be somewhat likened to a golf swing. A golfer coils his body during the backswing and in the course of swinging the club uncoils his body in coordinated relationship to club travel to put body weight along with arm swing into the ball hit. Soccer style kicking of a football is somewhat similar in that the kicker coils his body to a certain extent during approach to the ball and then uncoils in the opposite direction in timed coordination with the swing of his kicking leg to impart greater force to the ball. Soccer style kickers are also believed to get slower end-to-end spin on their kicks allowing the ball to travel a greater distance.
Although kicking tees are used under game conditions for kickoffs and on a high school level for field goals, they are also universally employed by kickers, including soccer style kickers for field goal practice since timing is an all important aspect of the kicking rhythm. This necessarily takes long, consistent practice. However, when a soccer style kicker practices kickoffs and field goals with a conventional tee such as that depicted in the Box U.S. Pat. No. D195,088, the upper instep of his foot tends to contact one or both of the rear ball support elements before engagement with the ball. Two results occur. First, contact of the foot with the tee before ball engagement can have an effect on distance as well as direction, noting in this respect that a small angular error at the kicking site can have a significant affect at the end of the ball's trajectory--some distance down the field.
The additional known prior art of kicking tees includes a block like base as shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,659,604 wherein the football is supported in a V-shaped valley; but here again, the design is for straight ahead kickers--not soccer style kickers. The tee of U.S. Pat. No. 3,309,087 is similar in material respect to the above-referenced Box tee in that it has two rear upright ball supports located for the kicker's toe to go therebetween in straight ahead fashion. U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,602 discloses a fold-up tee that has more than one specific patented use, i.e. kickoffs as well as field goals under game conditions. Here again though, the two rear football supports are transversely aligned and located for point of toe, straight ahead engagement of the kicker's foot with the ball.
The only prior art patent known that discusses soccer style kicking at all is U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,667, but even in this instance, the two upright supports for the ball of the U or V-shaped devices are described as being spaced for "free passage of the kicker's foot," therebetween.